Monday, October 12, 2015

On Safari With Karen 10-11 October 2015

10 October 2015

Upon arrival in
Nelspruit we transferred into the safari vehicle drove along a windy highway to
Buhala Lodge, which is close to Malelane. After check-in we enjoyed the view
over the Crocodile River and the Kruger Park on the other side, before it was
time to go on the Sunset safari.

Their sunset
safari was a unique experience with a lovely sunset. Also they saw their first
animals in the park (we had already seen vervet monkeys around the plantations
of the lodge) and were very lucky to come across a cheetah mum with her babies,
elephants, white rhinos, crocodiles, buffalos and some but not all saw a
leopard.

11 October 2015

The next
morning we enjoyed a relaxed breakfast at Buhala Lodge. The Egyptian geese were
making rather a racket, but we enjoyed nature nonetheless. We also saw a fish
eagle flying by, a pied wagtail, an elephant walking through the bush in the
background, an african hoopoe, Cape turtle dove, a grey heron and whistling
ducks.

Then we set off
into the park, where the first animals we encountered was of course an impala.
We had a short morning drive and our highlight was a sighting of a giraffe, an
elephant and some zebras around a dried up riverbed which only had a little
puddle left. The zebras were just snoozing in the shade, but the giraffe was
keen on having a drink. However the elephant was a being a bully and chased off
the giraffe from the water. Not to drink it himself or anything, he really was
just being a bully. Having chased the giraffe he walked on to a tree and stood
in the shade. The smart giraffe however had crossed the dried riverbed to get
away from the elephant and now looped around back to the water and drank his
fill.

The afternoon was
spend relaxing at Buhala, where a large herd of elephants had come across the
river to munch on the bushes in front of the lodge. Two elephants across the
river were practicing a 1-elephant scrum as the kept on pushing each other head
to head.

We also conduct day safaris, where guests are picked up at hotels and guest houses around the perimeter of the park where after they can spend a good day viewing the Big 5 aboard our purpose built open safari vehicles.